2nd Entry - Only 2 weeks left in Beijing

A note about Internet in China

Only through usage of proxy servers have I been able to post on this blog, and even check some email accounts here. In fact, I wasn’t even able to view my own blog for a while because of what some call “the great firewall of China” (Wikipedia). There is extensive government censorship of the internet, which fluctuates in severity content targeted and can become a major pain at times.

My internship

I have been working at my internship for several week now, and I have been very happy with it. I am doing graphic design work for a start-up company called renmenbi.com, a market insights company that provides market information for foreign companies about the burgeoning business climate in China. Renmenbi (which literally means Chinese local money) was founded in 2007 by two brothers, Lac and Ken Tran, who are of Chinese decent but grew up in Canada. Each has extensive experience with technology and the internet. Through observation of their daily entrepreneur work and struggle to make Renmenbi succeed, I have been able to see and experience business entrepreneurship close up for first time; I have learned a lot, most important of which, is starting a business requires a vast amount of sweat and time.

Although it seems to become something that engulfs one’s life, I do think it’s very much worth it when things get off the ground, and based on what type of people they are and the market niche they are in, I believe they will succeed. Some of the services they providing are unique to the industry (such as an extensive bilingual business term translation – coming soon). In fact, they just moved into a new office and just launched an improved website – it’s very exciting to see concrete progress!

I actually appreciate them a lot because although I study visual communication (graphic design), my internship with them is the first time I have been able to use those skills in a real world setting. I am by no means a professional designer yet and therefore am not yet very fast with design, but the projects they have given me are allowing me to practice and develop those skills. As an intern, I am also interviewing foreign companies in China in order to produce case studies about the hardships and other important aspects of business in China.

The subject of the first case study is about the Chinese term guanxi – which basically meaning relationship/network cultivation. It is essential for any small to medium, and even large corporate foreign businesses, to understand this complex concept before doing business here. Believe me, it is more complex than it sounds. For more, check http://renmenbi.com/effective-ways-cultivate-guanxi

One must be able to tap into guanxi networks to get many things done. This requires fostering trust with potential business partners before one can really get into business.

Business in China

Through class and interactions with people involved in the Chinese business world, I have a few thoughts about this subject. Business in China, similar to everything else here, is expanding at an astonishing pace. According to a UNC economy professor, the Chinese economy is growing at about 9-10% a year.* The issue to many Chinese is how to maintain this expansion and prosperity (though not for all) without losing traditional culture, which of course is so old here. Business in China is by no means a new concept – China is one of, if not the most, oldest nations and cultures. Historically, people from all over the world came here to trade and China, whose aristorcratic and merchants classes were very rich and successful as a result. This changed with Western foreign invasion and conquest of the 1800s onward – something Chinese people are still very resentful of. And damn well justified to be so. It is refreshing to see a nation, that although is extremely capitalist and economy unbalanced, at least largely owns and control its own economy. We all know most non-European or Non-Western countries don’t have such power. All the same, because of its capitalist nature, China is also one of the biggest producers of trash in the world, and wastes a lot of resources and everyday packaging; it is also a major contributor to pollution – the air in Beijing is heavily polluted, but is supposed to get better for the Olympics.

Back to history - Conforming to ‘Western’ business practices, which were technologically more advanced and imperialistic by nature, China was no longer the great power it had been until recently. It has regained its economic superiority only by conforming to the world’s economic order – I guess if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. And this, I think (though I don’t much about this), is where the contradiction between China’s political and economic system begins.

The first question on my mind before arriving, and even now, is how is it possible for this very capitalist economic powerhouse to have a communist political system? Well…I still really don’t know. Maybe its for the sake of stability after many years of domestic turmoil and political movements. One extreme breeds another. Maybe. I have more insight on this…but that will go in the next blog when it is more developed…you expected some profound conclusion? Haha…

Last thing – check out the picture in the third to last blog – I took it on the great wall and I feel like it captures the essence of the title of this blog.

*One can witness it everywhere, from the physical landscape of the city – new sky scrapers are built within one year’s time – to the media attention China is given in US media. Some say they believe things are moving too fast, and after the 2008 Olympics, things could be out of hand. Others say that based on how much money foreign companies are investing here, they plan to stay here for a long time and business will only continue to grow, though at a slower pace.

About Renmenbi.com

For anyone interested, Renmnebi.com has articles about very interesting aspects of China – from which I have learned a lot. Because their website’s information is geared toward those being introduced to China’s very different culture, it is perfect for anyone just beginning to learn about it. I know many people are just getting interested in China for the sake of its expanding economic power, but without understanding its history and culture, one can really not make too much sense of why and how this phenomena is occurring. This applies to a foreign company as well – which is what makes renmenbi such a good idea. Below are links to a couple of good articles from the site:

http://renmenbi.com/pale-beautiful

http://renmenbi.com/face-and-guanxi-beginners

For my China culture/business class, we were assigned several readings. One of them, entitled, ‘China’s Many Faces’ was very fascinating. As with many things that are foreign to us, we in the West* definitely have a homogeneous picture of China – its people, culture and history. I bet when the average American thinks of China, or even of the Far East in general, they just think of Samurais and kung fu. For those who keep up on world affairs, all we really hear about is the burgeoning Chinese economy and the communist government’s suppression of human rights. As the article states, our limited understanding of China, which is close to being the world’s economic power, is a result of the Western media’s depiction of China, although this in itself is not unique. What is different about the case of China is that it is likely to be the oldest remaining nation on Earth, and only because of its recent economic successes do we begin to take it seriously. A testament to Western arrogance.

According the article, China is in fact extremely diverse. We always describe (and take pride in) the US being a ‘melting pot’, when in fact China has been so for centuries.

As the article states, only 8 percent of China’s population is considered minority; however, this equates to 96 million people and 55 distinct ethnic groups (although this number is disputed – it could possibly be more like 400-500). Most of the minority ethnic groups reside near the borders of China, and are made up of many different religions, such as Buddhist and Islam, and claim Iranian, Turkish and Mongolian ancestries (and many more). This reality paints a much different picture of China than I was ever exposed to. Because of this great diversity, there have historically been many independence movements within China, which is still a great concern of the Chinese Government, the most famous example being Tibet. Reading this made me reflect upon the notion of nation building.

I recently returned from Cuba where I learned about its history. Cuban nationalists struggled to promote national unity throughout its history in order to gain independence from imperialism/colonialism. This inevitably equated to diminishing the importance of distinct racial and/or cultural attachments, to strengthen national Cuban identity. This was understandably necessary to fight external control of the island, but unfortunately at times, it meant the island’s great complexities were downplayed; although nowadays, this diversity is something in which Cubans take great pride. Similarly, in China, the national government has tried to promote national unity in order to build a strong nation, and this has equated, at times, to suppression of ethnic minority groups’ right to be different from what is supposed to be the ‘normal’ Chinese culture.

It is an interesting dilemma. I have not studied nearly enough about Chinese history to have an opinion, but the fact that the government has been able to maintain its nationhood in the face of domestic turmoil is part of the reason that it has become an economic powerhouse growing at a fantastic pace. The irony about its economy, which I have many questions about, is that in a country with one of the only remaining communist political systems (whatever that means…), is also home to what might be the most capitalist system in the world. If not more so than the US, it may be on its way to being so.

Being here now, I am constantly reminded of this fact. Simply by existing in the US, it is nearly impossible for one not to support the corporate power structure unless they do not buy anything, or do not at all engage in entertainment/informational media. So far, at least in Beijing (and I would assume in all of China’s big cities) I don’t think China is very different. For example, communication technology has taken over our lives in the US – cell phones, text messaging, IMs, etc. Walking around my college campus in the US, I constantly see people using their cell phones. Similarly, my Chinese roommate is always sending and receiving text messages just like many other Chinese people I have seen walking around – especially students. In the US, we also are constantly bombarded by corporate advertisements – billboards, commercials, etc. In China, it is no different, and maybe even worse –there are even TVs airing ads for Chinese products in the grocery stores here. Bottled water, which may be the biggest hustle I have ever heard of (3/4 of the Earth’s surface is water…why do we need to buy it in bottles?) is a Western phenomenon which is prospering in China! Tap water is not potable in China (it is full of chemicals that kill the bacteria), so either one must boil it or buy it in bottles. I recently read an article about how bad this mass plastic bottle production is for the environment, and how it is causing the mass privatization of water in the US and Europe, and I am sure that this trend is taking place in China as well.